This week's Torah Portion is Balak, one of the most extraordinary passages in the Torah.
The Midrash says that certain things were created during Shkiah, that brief portion of the day called twilight, on the eve of the first Shabbat - amongst them, the mouth of Bilam's donkey, which spoke.
Another one of those created at the very last minute things was the soul of Moshiach, that root neshama that would manifest it's soul spark throughout human history in various incarnations - Adam haReshon, Avraham Avinu, Moshe Rabbanu, King David - until coming to it's final fruition in the End of Days as Moshiach, maker of world peace, builder of the Third and final Temple, gatherer of the Jewish People, savior of the world.
Why was "the mouth of the donkey" created while the light was waning yet before darkness actually appeared? Why was the soul of Moshiach created at that time as well? Could it be that the cosmic interplay of light and darkness in primordial Time somehow flavored the future for all of us by these mysterious last-minute preparations that G*d made right before the beginning of the 7th Day, upon which He rested for the very first time?
Shlomo Katz (whom I like to call "The Cohen Gadol of Jewish Music" has some thoughts on the Parsha that will illuminate us all.
Shabbat Shalom from the Holy Land to the World!
